10 amazing tweeps I met in 10 years of Twitter

Twitter turned 10 years old, and I, like many others, have been reflecting on what it means to me.

Twitter tells me that I joined it in July 2008. I remember the day, vividly. I was following a thread on an online forum, where academics were sharing experiences of using Second Life, Facebook, Twitter, etc… and I thought I had better check it out for myself.

Twitter also had tremendous impact on how I see the world. These are some of the key moments in Twitter’s 10-year history.

The best of Twitter, though, are the people.

So, in honour of Twitter’s 10th anniversary, I compiled a list of 10 really interesting tweeps I met on Twitter. Some of them, I went on to meet face to face. Others, remain a virtual connection. Every single one of them offer a peculiar view of the world. Here they are, in alphabetical order.

@AdelePrince – I first met Adele, a visual artist based in SE London, via #janathon. Janathon is an initiative to get people running in January, and when I started following Adele’s janathon’s adventures, she was struggling to run a couple of miles per day. Today, she has completed various races and triathlons, and inspires others to run.

@AnamariaLeonte – I came across Ana-Maria through the #FinTech hashtag. I was following discussions about an event dedicated to the role of technology in the financial sector, and her tweets kept coming up. As it turns out, technology is not Ana-Maria’s only talent. She is also an actor, who played Dasha Promenti in Star Wars – The Force Awakens.

@arjantupan – I met Arjan via #TTOT, a community interested on travel topics. He often posted about the people, rather than the places, which I found very interesting. He is also a poet who, in 2012, wrote and posted a poem everyday. He now lives in Germany, and tweets about entrepreneurship and start-up issues.

@dirkvl – Dirk is an academic, with a particular interest on museums and arts. I don’t remember how I first came across him. After interacting on Twitter for a while, Dirk contacted me to co-author a paper on social media crises. We did – and while I know one of the other authors, personally, I have never actually met Dirk face to face.

@iagdotme – Ian is the most recent connection, on this list. I started following him because of a personal recommendation. He is digital marketer, based in the UK, and he is very active on various channels. I find him very generous – sharing his experiences, what he reads, reacting to what you say… And, of course, I am learning a lot with him.

@keith_wilson – I am not sure how I first came across Keith. I think it was around the time of one of Apple’s product launches. At the time, he was a PhD student, in philosophy. He has since graduated, married, moved to Glasgow and had a child – not necessarily in this order. He muses on politics, technology, academia and life in general, with typical British humour. Probably, Twitter’s king of hashtags.

@LetaHong – Again, I don’t remember how I came across Leta. Maybe through the #AcWri community. Through her tweets, I have learned a lot about gender issues in China and, in particular, about gender inequality and how single women are portrayed in the media.

@markwschaefer – I remember how I met Mark! He started following me. I checked his profile and I really liked his content. These were the early days of Twitter, and I found his content extremely helpful in terms of making sense of what was going on, and what all of this meant for marketing. Mark is a famous blogger, author, consultant and speaker. He also has a great podcast, called the Marketing Companion, which I recommend to every marketer I come across.

@MirandaKeeling – I came across Miranda because a colleague retweeted some of her tweets, and they brightened my day. Miranda regularly tweets observations about daily life – excerpts of conversations she hears, comments about a commuter’s posture… She turns the mundane into poetry, in 140 characters. Check her Lost Lectures talk, here.

@mystudiouslife – Jenn is a computer science academic, based in Malaysia. I met her during the first #acwrimo initiative (academic writing month – inspired by #NaBoWriMo), when she was studying for her masters’ degree. We share a love of coffee and use of technology in teaching. Oh, and husbands who love gadgets.

I have certainly met many bright minds and kind hearts on Twitter. What about you?

9 thoughts on “10 amazing tweeps I met in 10 years of Twitter”

Wow, wow, wow. Thank you for including me in this list, Ana. And in such great company. You are certainly in mine as well. You have a curious mind, you are always interacting with people, next to your thoughtleadership on digital marketing, you also have many other interests that are worth noticing, on Twitter, Instagram, your blog. I really admire how you did your running adventure. I think it was in 2012, or 2013, right, the 2012/3 Miles challenge?
What I particularly like about how you approach your topic of digital marketing, is that you combine academic research with experimenting and experiencing. I look forward to more years of online interaction, and who knows a face-to-face meeting some day 🙂

Aw, thank you! This is a lovely list to compile. I quite often feel overwhelmed by the level of information thrown at me by Twitter, so filter lots of the automatic stuff that gets churned out by newsfeeds etc, so the personal tweets are always the ones that stand out and prompt a response. Thank you for including me in your list!

Thanks, Ana. I was really touched that you included me in your list. Thank you so much. I’m just glad we were able to connect and for your kind words. I hope we can actually meet up some day- we’re in the same country after all!

I’m truly honoured to be in your list. If you didn’t mention, I really couldn’t recall how we got to know each other. I also didn’t know your husband is into gadgets too. You must share more about him and his gadgets. I’m sure my husband will be interested and so do I. Haha!